Know the Different Types of Nutritional Status: Which One Are You?

Medical Video: How To Test Your Nutritional Status & How To Know Which Supplements To Take: The...

Most of you may only know that a person's body is fat, thin, and normal. But, further than just these three terms, WHO as a world health organization has classified a person's nutritional status based on height, weight, and age.

What is nutritional status?

Everyone must crave a normal nutritional status, have an ideal body weight and height. Normal nutritional status shows you have a good health status. Normal nutritional status can reduce your risk of getting a disease.

Nutritional status is a health condition that is influenced by the intake and use of nutrients. When your nutritional intake meets your needs, then you will have a good nutritional status. However, when your nutritional intake is lacking or excessive, this will cause imbalances in your body.

Various types of nutritional status

Nutritional status is one indicator of a person's health. Therefore, you should know the nutritional status you have, especially for your child because he is in a period of growth and development. Sometimes someone has the wrong notion of nutritional status.

The following are some of the nutritional status that you need to pay attention to. Because if you have a nutritional status as below, then your risk of experiencing certain diseases will be greater than other individuals who have normal nutritional status. The nutritional status below is divided into three groups, namely for children under 5 years, children aged 5-18 years, and adults.

For children under 5 years old

Indicators commonly used for children of this age are weight to age (BB / U), height to age (TB / U), and weight to height (BB / TB). These three indicators can indicate whether a child has less nutritional status, short (stunting), thin (wasting), and obesity.

Less weight (underweight)

Underweight is a classification of nutritional status BB / U. BB / U shows the growth of a child's weight against his age, whether it is appropriate or not. If the child's weight is below the average child of his age, then said the child underweight. However, don't worry because your child's weight can always change easily. Thus, this indicator does not give an indication of severe nutritional problems in children.

Short (stunting)

Stunting is a classification of nutritional status indicators TB / U. Son said stunting is he who has height not according to his age, usually he will be shorter than his age. Stunting is a result of lack of nutritional intake in a long period of time, so that children cannot catch up with the growth of their height.

Thin (wasting)

Wasting is one of the classifications of nutritional status indicators BB / TB. Children who are said to be thin are those who have a low body weight that is not suitable for their height. Wasting usually occurs in children during weaning or during the first 2 years of life. After a child is 2 years old, it is usually the risk he experiences wasting will decrease. Wasting is a sign that the child has severe malnutrition, usually due to lack of food intake or infectious diseases, such as diarrhea.

Fat

Is the opposite of thin, where both are obtained from the measurement of BB / TB. Children who are said to be obese are those who have more weight to their height.

For children aged 5-18 years

Children aged 5-18 still experience a lot of growth and development. You can find out the nutritional status of children aged 5-18 years using the TB / U and BMI / U indicators.

Short (stunting)

Just like the explanation above, stunting obtained from measurements of height to age. At the age of 5-18 years the child's height continues to grow and the child can still catch up, although maybe the chance is only a little to be able to reach a normal height.

Skinny, fat and obese

It is a nutritional status that can be obtained from BMI / U measurements. BMI is a person's body mass index obtained from the calculation of body weight divided by height. Then, this BMI is adjusted for the age of the child. If a child's BMI is lower than the average child of his age, then the child is said to be thin. Conversely, if the child's BMI is higher or more very high compared to the average child of his age, said the child has a nutritional status that is obese or obese.

Adults (more than 18 years)

In contrast to children, to find out adult nutritional status, you simply know your body mass index (BMI). BMI is an indicator of your body composition, such as body fat mass and other body composition besides fat (such as bone and water).

You can find out your BMI by dividing weight (in kg) by height (in m2) After you know your body mass index, then you will find out your nutritional status as follows, which are classified as follows.

Thin: if your BMI is less than 18.5 kg / m²
Normal: if your BMI ranges from 18.5-24.9 kg / m²
Overweight (more weight) : if your BMI ranges from 25-27 kg / m²
Obesity: if your BMI is more than 27 kg / m²

By knowing your BMI, you can find out if you are underweight, normal, or overweight. You can monitor your nutritional status by routinely weighing.

By doing this, you can find out whether you are deficient or over nutrition. Because, both of these things can bring adverse effects to your health. Less weight can increase your risk of infection, while excess weight can increase your risk of degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus.